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ENATE No. 296. 



Clje Srl0bee f ortratt. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS 



ON THE OCCASION OF 



THE RECEPTION 



Portrait of Nathaniel Silsbee 



SENATE OF MASSACHUSETTS, 



Friday, May 26, 1882. 



BOSTON : 

WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS, 

18 Post Office Square. 

1882. 



i^i-\^ 



SENATE No. 296. 



Clje Stisbec ^portrait. 



REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS 



ON THE OCCASION OF 



THE RECEPTION 



Portrait of Nathaniel Silsbee 



SENATE OF MASSACHUSETTS, 



Friday, May 26, 1882. 



BOSTON : 

WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS, 

18 Post Office Squake. 

1882. 






StP 24 :!07 

D.Ot'D. 






PPvOCEP]DTNGS. 



Senate, May 26, 1882. 

The Senate met at 11 o'clock, a.m., Hon. Robert E. 
Bishop of Middlesex, President, in the chair. 

The Divine blessing was invoked by the Chaplain of the 
Senate, Rev. Edmund Dowse of Sherborn. 

The President read to the Senate the followins: communi- 
cation : — 

Peabody, Essex County, Mass., 15 May, 1882. 
Hon. Robert R. Bishop, President Massachusetts Senate : 

Dear Sir, — Knowing the interest you have taken in endeavoring 
to secure a collection of portraits of all the past presidents of the 
honorable body over which you now preside, it gives me pleasure 
to assist in this praiseworthy object and to offer through you, as a 
gift to our Commonwealth, to be placed on the walls of her Senate 
chamber, a painting of the late Nathaniel Silsbee of Salem, who 
presided for the three terms of 1823, 1824 and 1825. 

In parting with this original portrait, I do so with the feeling 
that there is no more fitting place for it to be preserved than on the 
walls of that historic building, which stands, and which I trust will 
be allowed to stand perpetually, representing the State which Mr. 
Silsbee loved to serve and honor. 

This portrait was painted by Chester Harding about the year 
1832, and has remained in the possession of the immediate family 
ever since. The only copy ever made is in the possession of the 
East India Marine Society at Salem, which organization, and its 



4 THE SILSBEE PORTRAIT. [May, 

museum, Mr. Silsbee, with his brother-in-law, Hon. Jacob 
Crowninshield, Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, and a few associates 
commenced. 

In 1816, Colonel Pickering, who represented this District in Con- 
gress, having made himself very unpopular by his vote on the Com- 
pensation Bill, Mr. Silsbee was selected by the Republican party as 
their candidate for Congress. On Ms being announced Mr. Pick- 
ering declined, and Mr. Stephens was nominated as his successor ; 
and Mr. Silsbee, after a very sharp and close contest, was elected 
b}' seven votes — Salem and Essex South District being in old 
party times the scenes of the closest conflicts, and most contested 
battles. At the close of his first term in Congress, no candidate 
was openly nominated in opposition to Mr. Silsbee, though at the 
polls Mr. Pickering, who was always a personal friend, was sprung 
upon him by the latter's political adherents and received many 
votes, but Mr. Silsbee was triumphantly re-elected. After serving 
his second term in Congress, Mr. Silsbee returned to receive the 
thanks and congratulations of all, and a public dinner was given him 
in June, 1820, by all parties. Particular praise was then awarded 
to him for opposing the extension of slavery and the Missouri Com- 
promise, and for resisting that tariff which the South then imposed 
on us, but which since, by the change of our habits of business 
which it produced, is now indispensable to our success, but withheld 
by the very party who imposed it upon us. The last is a singular 
fact in the history of our politics. 

In 1821, Mr. Silsbee, who bad resigned his seat in Congress, was 
returned to our State Legislature as a representative from Salem ; 
and in that body, to him and the Hon. Peter C. Brooks, the impor- 
tant subject of banks was committed. In 1823, on Governor 
Brooks declining the chair of State, the Republican party came into 
power, Essex County for the first time returned Republican sena- 
tors, at the head of whom was Mr. Silsbee ; and that year and the 
two succeeding he presided over the Senate as president. 

When Mr. Silsbee was called to preside in the Senate, it was the 
first time he was a member of that board, and he had never been 
accustomed to preside over any similar assembl}'. It was a situa- 
tion of great embarrassment. The late John Phillips, the former 
president, and Mr. Silsbee's competitor, would have been fully jus- 
tified, by the feelings of that period, in amusing himself with the 
embarrassment of his successful competitor. But such was not Mr. 
Phillips' course. He gave Mr. Silsbee every assistance during the 
session of that day, and at its close told Mr. Silsbee that he felt for 
the embarrassment of his position, and that he would meet him the 



1882.] SENATE — No. 296. 5 

next morumg an hour before the assembling of the Senate and 
point out to him all the duties of his office. 

During the time that Mr. Silsbee presided over the Senate, by 
the appointment of Lieut.-Governor Lincoln as Judge, the office of 
Lieut.-Governor became vacant; and Mr. Silsbee would have suc- 
ceeded to that office, and also succeeded Gov. Enstis in the guber- 
natorial chair, had not a deep intrigue defeated it. Mr. Silsbee 
never attended a party caucus, until he was drawn into one by 
sti-atagem, and placed in the chair, by one who well knew that he 
would not accept the nomination of a meeting over which he pre- 
sided. Though he refused to be reported as a candidate, yet he 
received the greatest vote, and at the next ballot would have been 
chosen, but being in the chair he immediately declined, and in con- 
sequence Mr. Morton was elected Lieut.-Governor. 

In the spring session of 1826, on the resignation of Hon. James 
Lloyd, Mr. Silsbee was elected to supply his place in the United 
States Senate, and was afterwards re-elected for a full term, thus 
becoming the colleague of the Hon. Daniel Webster. He continued 
in the Senate until 1H35. Mr. Silsbee was the firm supporter of 
the administration of John Quincy Adams, and the moment after 
the election was over, and Mr. Adams defeated, Mr. Silsbee offered 
to give up his seat in the Senate, that Mr. Adams might take his 
place ; but Mr. Adams absolutely declined it. When he, Mr. 
Silsbee, declined, Mr. Adams was brought forward ; but the evil 
genius of Massachusetts ruled the hour, and he was defeated. 

Mr. Silsbee, in the House and in the Senate, ever enjoyed the 
highest confidence of his colleagues and his constituents. None 
was ever more faithful and attentive to all his duties. He was 
president of the State convention at Worcester, and was elected 
delegate to the convention to nominate President in 1840. His sick- 
ness occasioned his absence, his absence defeated the nomination 
and election of Mr. Clay, and entailed on us the disasters conse- 
quent thereon. 

Mr. Silsbee began his business career soon after the breaking out 
of the French Revolution, and the general warfare in which all 
Europe became embroiled. A new field of enterprise was then 
thrown open to the active minds of our countrymen, exhausted and 
impoverished by the war, from which the}' had lately emerged, and 
eager to embrace the golden opportunities which then presented. 
The beneficent effects of our new government began to be seen and 
felt in the protection of the industry and interest of our own citi- 
zens. This new state of things opened to us channels of business 
throughout the commercial world which had been filled b}' others 



6 THE SIIiSBEE PORTRAIT. [May, 

— and enabled us by our neutral position, wisel^y i-esolved on, to 
carry on the trade of nations driven from the sea by the naval su- 
periority of their enemies. 

At this favorable point of time, Mr. Silsbee, having finished his 
term of service at one of the best private schools Of instruction, 
under the Rev. Manasseh Cutler of Hamilton, and having aband- 
oned the collegiate course for which he had been prepared, and 
been initiated into the forms of liusiness and the knowledge of 
the counting-room, he engaged in the emplo}' of Elias Hasket 
Derb}", Esq., the leader of the vanguard of India adventure. At 
the age of eighteen he embarked on the sea of fortune as a clerk 
of a merchant vessel. 

In December, 1792, he sailed in command of a new ship belong- 
ing to Mr. Derby, the " Benjamin," one hundred and ninety tons, 
for the Isle of France and the East Indies. Neither he nor his 
chief officer, Mr. Cleveland (afterwards Captain Cleveland), had 
then attained the age of twenty-one. 

This is probabl}' the vessel that has been described as one which 
today would scarcely be deemed suitable for a coasting craft — un- 
coppered, without the improved nautical instruments and science 
which now universally prevail — the commander trusting only to 
his dead reckoning, his eyes and his lead. Not one on board had 
attained the age of his majority. 

Captain Cleveland's "Voj^ages" contain the following passage 
relating to this V03'age : — 

"It is not probable that the annals of the world can furnish 
another example of an enterprise of such magnitude and skill, 
being conducted b}' so young a man, aided. only by those who were 
yet younger, and accomplished with the most entire success." 

Fearless, sagacious, adventurous, yet prudent, success almost 
uniforml}' crowned his efforts. Many of his voyages appear like 
fictions of romance compared with the quiet safety and regularit}'^ 
of the present time. The lawless violence of belligerents, and the 
jealousy and suspicions which ever attend neutral commerce, called 
into exercise every power which mental skill and physical skill 
could devise. 

At an earl}- age he was able to withdraw from the perils and 
hazards of the sea with a fortune sufficiently ample to engage in 
the adventures of that period, under the agency of others, and 
enjoy the pleasures of domestic life duh^ mixed with the cares of 
business. 

In a government of free institutions, every citizen is bound to 
lend his aid when required ; and the confidence which his correct 



1882.] SENATE — No. 296. 7 

principles and course of life had inspired, marked him as a fit man 
to serve the public. This preference he long withstood, but 
yielded at length to the solicitation of friends, and embarked in 
public life. His routine of public service has been already re- 
ferred to. 

In all commercial questions which presented themselves to the 
consideration of Congress, while a member of both houses, no 
man's opinion was more sought for and more justly respected. 
His consistency, his high standard of morals and of honor, his 
uncompromising and unswerving integrity, secured him the confi- 
dence of all parties ; while his experience and practical knowledge 
on all commercial subjects p ointed him out as a fit expositor on 
such occasions. Long after his retirement were his opinions 
sought for in this branch of legislation, on which, strange to say, 
in a country so essentially commercial, such defective representa- 
tion had during those times prevailed. 

As a citizen of his native place, no one has more willingly dis- 
charged the claims which societ}^ makes on its members. He has 
done honor to the pioneer class of merchant princes, reared and 
nurtured in the earl^' days of the Republic, — intelligent, adven- 
turous, the carvers of their own fortunes. No man was more 
respected by the communit}' at' large. Hospitable and liberal, he 
lived beloved and honored in the circle of his friends and family, 
and at a good old age, his duties conscientiously discharged, and 
his earthly frame worn out, he passed from this world to the haven 
of rest. 

He died on the 14th of July, 1850, in his seventy-eighth year, 
leaving a son and two daughters. His son, also Hon. Nathaniel 
Silsbee, lately deceased, was for several terms maj'or of Salem, 
a member of the House of Representatives, and more recently for 
many years treasurer of Harvard Universit}'. 

I have drawn upon publications at the time of Mr. Silsbee's 
death, as well as upon individual opinions of today, for this brief 
sketch of his life. 

With great respect, believe me, j-our obedient servant, 

Francis H. Appleton. 

The President then said : — 

On the occasion of the reception of this portrait, it gives me 
great pleasure, in behalf of the Senate, to welcome to these ex- 
ercises many of the members of the family of Mr. Silsbee ; and 
our only regret is that the early close of the session has prevented 



8 THE SILSBEE PORTRAIT. [May, 

that longer and more extended public notice which would have 
given greater publicity to the occasion, and secured the presence 
of a larger number. 

The chair awaits the pleasure of the Senate. 

Resolutions Offered. 

Mr. Stone of P^ssex. — I desire to offer the resolutions which I 
will read : — 

Resolved^ That the Senate, on behalf of the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, accept from Mr. Francis H. Appleton the portrait 
of his grandfather, the Hon. Nathaniel Silsbee, Sr., president of 
this body during the years 1823, 1824 and 1825, to be placed in 
line among the portraits of other distinguished citizens of the 
Commonwealth which now adorn the walls of this chamber. 

Nathaniel Silsbee was an eminent representative citizen of 
Essex County during the entire period covered by the first half 
of the present century. 

His great knowledge of commercial affairs, derived in a large 
measure from experience, aided him materially when called upon 
by his fellow-citizens to occupy important public positions, so that 
he brought to the discharge of his duties, in all the high offices 
which he held, an intimate knowledge and appreciative understand- 
ing of all the relations of government to commercial and industrial 
affairs. 

He was loved and respected in the county of Essex. He was 
an honored member of this branch of the Legislature, and in the 
Congress of the United States he was influential at all times in 
promoting just legislation. 

We revere his memor}^, we take an honest pride in his. virtues 
and in all his manly qualities of mind and heart, which he so 
forcibly evinced throughout his long and honorable life. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Commonwealth are hereby 
tendered to Mr. Appleton for his generous donation, and that his 
paper accompanying the gift, together with these resolutions, be 
entered at large on the journal of the Senate, and that the pro- 
ceedings of this occasion be ordered to be printed. 

Remarks of Senator Stone op Essex. 

Mr. President, — It is not my purpose at this time to say any- 
thing in support of the resolutions which I have just offered ; that 
will be more fittingly and more appropriately done b^' my honored 
colleague who sits upon my left (Mr. Horton of Essex), who 



1^82.] SENATE — No. 296. 9 

represents the immediate locality in which Mr. Silsbee lived ; and 
also by other honorable senators, members of whose families' were 
in public life at the same time with Mr. Silsbee. At the same time 
I cannot refrain from saying a word, for Mr. Silsbee was my pred- 
ecessor in office. My immediate constituency in the county of 
Essex, although distant as far as it can be in the county from the 
city of Salem, was, at the time Mr. Silsbee was a member of this 
body, a part of his constituency ; for, at that time, instead of there 
being separate senatorial districts, the several senators from each 
county were all elected upon one ticket. The county of Essex and 
the district which I represent, being a part of the county of Essex, 
are proud of the memory of Mr. Silsbee, as being a resident of 
the county ; and the Senate may well pause for a moment upon 
this occasion to return their thanks for this very generous dona- 
tion, which enables the Commonwealth, upon the walls of this 
chamber, to hang the portrait of one of her most illustrious sons. 
By a singular and most remarkable coincidence, it will be seen that 
Governor Eustis, whose portrait hangs u|)on this wall, was gov- 
ernor of this Commonwealth during the identical three yearl in 
which Mr. Silsbee presided over this body. Their pictures will 
hang together upon these walls, and their memory will go down to 
posterity as among the most illustrious citizens of that day. 

The President— The question is upon the adoption of the 
resolutions. 

Remarks of Senator Horton of Essex. 

Mr. President, — With reference to this portrait which is here- 
after to find a place in this chamber, and to the communication 
which you have just read, as well as to the resolutions which have 
been offered, the duty seems naturally to devolve upon me, as rep- 
resenting in this Senate the city with whose interests Mr. Silsbee 
was identified during his long and honorable life, of contributing a 
few thoughts which may not be considered out of place on the oc- 
casion of the reception of this welcome gift. 

It is never otherwise than pleasant, and rarely otherwise than 
profitable, to be led into a train of contemplation concerning the 
place of one's birth and life. The city of Salem, it is not unbecom- 
ing in me to say, has been no inconspicuous actor in the long train 
of events which, beginning with the early settlement of the c'^lony, 
finally and by progressive steps, led up to the formation of thJ 
national government under which we today live, and to that mar- 
vellous development and growth which have produced a nation 



10 THE SILSBEE PORTRAIT. [May, 

bounded by two great oceans, and possessing within its own limits 
exevj element which contributes to the wealth and prosperity, and 
makes possible the best social and intellectual development of the 
people. 

Upon these walls there hangs a portrait of John Endicott, who 
came to Salem more than two centuries and a half ago as governor 
of the plantation. It was in Salem where, one hundred and seven 
years ago last October, the House of Representatives of the Mas- 
sachusetts colony resolved themselves into a Provincial Congress, 
and adjourned to meet four days later at Concord, where they 
chose John Hancock president. It is from this event in Salem, 
that the independence of Massachusetts practically dates. Within 
the two and a half centuries that have elapsed since Salem was 
settled, that place has given to the country very far more than an 
ordinar}^ share of the enterprise which has carried civilization 
abroad and developed commercial prosperity' at home. Salem was 
at one time the seat of almost or quite the entire East Indian trade 
of the countrj'. 

It was Elias Hasket Derby, in whose employ Mr, Silsbee first 
entered upon his business career, who opened the trade with China 
in bold competition with the British monopoly of that market under 
the auspices of the long established East India Company. It was 
the same eminent merchant who opened the trade with India which 
for so many years gave prominence to the city of his birth under 
that long array of shipmasters and merchants of which Mr. Silsbee 
was one of the most respected. The commercial history of Salem, 
during these years following the Revolution, is interwoven with the 
enterprise and growth of the country as well as with that spirit of 
patriotism which was ever and always ready to defend her interests. 
Born as our earl}^ commerce was of that daring spirit which en- 
gaged in privateering during the Revolution, our early navigators, 
without chart or guide, not onl}' opened traffic with ports never be- 
fore visited by Americans, but were alert to aid the infant nation in 
deriving means to protect itself from threatened war with other 
powers. 

It was Mr. Silsbee's business instructor, Mr. Derby, who sub- 
scribed $10,000 — as did that other Salem merchant, the grand- 
father of the late Chief Justice of our Supreme Judicial Court, now 
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States — to- 
ward the building for the government of the frigate Essex, the 
fastest vessel in the American navy, the first national vessel to 
double the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, — a frigate that 
captured sixteen vessels during her first cruise, and property in all 



1882.] SENATE — No. 296. 11 

to the amount of two millions of dollars. On this vessel, built 
entirely by Salem merchants. Admiral Farragut served as a mid- 
shipman. 

The man whose portrait is hereafter to be placed within the view 
of those who gather in this hall, was one of the line of merchants 
wljose capacity and enterprise have contributed to our development 
and growth ; to that spirit of trade and commerce which has given 
to ditferent peoples the benefit of frequent communication with 
each other ; and to our own people the advantage of those liberal 
appliances for education, improvement and culture which have been 
amung the fruits of the wealth of those energetic and enlightened 
men who brought hither the products of the remotest lands. 

Salem has given to the country such men as Timdth}^ Pickering, 
the military patriot and statesman : John Pickering his son, the 
man of sound scholarship and eminent learning ; Nathaniel Bow- 
ditch, of scientific fame ; William H. Prescott, the historian ; 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, the writer, and others w^ho have made more 
than an ordinary record in the life of men. Mr. Silsbee was a fair 
type of that class of men whose importance and usefulness in a re- 
public like our own should never be undervalued. While he takes 
rank with neither of those named in the departments for which they 
were severally distinguished, he was nevertheless a representative 
of the class of men who have contributed a very important share to 
our national prosperity, and in no small degree to those wise and 
disinterested counsels which have sought the national elevation and 
been successful in diffusing the fruits of an enlightened civilization 
over the land. He must have been a man of uncommon natural 
abilit}' and intelligence, who, with even such good culture as his 
day afforded, starting as clerk of a merchant vessel at the age of 
eighteen, could command a ship before he was twenty-one, in a 
voyage to the Isle of France and the East Indies. 

In the communication you have just read, Mr. President, which 
contains all that is necessary to state concerning the life of Mr. 
Silsbee, I observe that he received instruction at the hands of the 
Rev. Manasseh Cutler of Hamilton, and also that he was the re- 
cipient of a public dinner in June, 1820, upon the completion of his 
second congressional term, on which occasion he was praised for 
opposing the extension of slavery and the Missouri Compromise. 
Mr. Silsbee, while in the national councils, was the warm personal 
and political friend of John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. 

These allusions had significance to mv mind as being important 
parts in a series of historical events beginning with the Ordinance 
of 1787, b}' which slavery was forever excluded from the North- 



12 THE SILSBEE PORTRAIT. [May, 

west Territory, and culminating with the war which followed the 
election of Abraham Lincoln, and the abolition of human slavery 
thi'oughout the United States b}^ the militarj^ edict of the com- 
mander-in-chief. While the authorship of the Ordinance of 1787 
is attributed to Nathan Dane of Beverly, a very forcible presenta- 
tion has been made within a comparatively few years to show the 
probability that Manasseh Cutler of Hamilton, Mr. Silsbee's edu- 
cator, was influential in the inception of that comprehensive anti- 
slavery measure. [North American Review for April, 1876.] 
The compromise of 1820, which Mr. Silsbee opposed, and foi which 
he was so emphatically endorsed by his constituents, wfts the mea- 
sure by which the State of Missouri was admitted into the Union 
with a constitution recognizing slavery upon the condition that the 
remainder of the Louisiana grant shtjuld remain forever free. 
When, in 1820, he opposed this compromise in the interest of free- 
dom, he little deemed that, thirty-four years later, the unfulfilled 
part of that compact would be l)roken in further deference to the 
supremacy of the slave power in the government. 

Mr. Silsbee was the warm personal friend of Henry Clay, favor- 
ing his nomination as the Whig candidate for President, instead of 
General Harrison, in 1840, and also his election as the Whig can- 
didate in 1844, over James K. Polk, his Democratic competitor. 
It has been commonly believed that if Mr. Cla}- had been elected, 
the Mexican war would not have followed . If the war had not oc- 
curred, we should not have obtained the territory to which the com- 
promise of 1850 applied. If the doctrine of popular sovereignty 
(or " squatter sovereignty-," as the Northern Whigs of that day 
called it) as recognized in the compromise of 1850, had not been 
set up, Stephen A. Douglas would have had no provocation on 
which to base and defend the repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
in his bill for organizing a territory forever dedicated to freedom in 
1820. If this compromise had not been repealed, it is doubtful if 
there would ever have been a Republican party to elect Abraham 
Lincoln to the Presidency, and there would have been no effort to 
divide the Union, no war, and of course no abolition of slavery in 
the way which only the war could have made possible as a war 
measure. It was Mr. Silsbee's personal friend, John Quincy 
Adams, who in debate once said, in reply to the Southern threat 
of secession in the interest of slaveiy, that if the slave section of 
the Union should ever be so unwise as to take that step, it would, 
by the creation of a war, produce the only condition of things by 
which slavery could be abolished by the edict of military law which 
is supreme in war. 



1882.] SENATE — No. 296. 13 

What might have been the result if the cause had been success- 
ful which Mr. Silsbee upheld in 1820, no one can tell. If 
Missouri had been kept out and slavery had been therein forever 
prohibited, in accordance with the spirit and policy of the Ordi- 
nance of 1787, it is not impossible that the later controversy regard- 
ing slavei'Y in the territories would have ceased. But, on the 
other hand, the Southern sense of wrong might have culminated in 
secession forty years earlier, and whether with better success than 
in 1861, the world will never know. 

Of this we may be sure. Mr. Silsbee's career at different periods 
in life, was conspicuously interwoven with men whose ideas have 
shaped every successful effort to circumscribe and abolish slavery 
in this Republic ; and his own public life, in its attitude upon this 
subject, was in strict harmony with the sentiment which has always 
controlled with reference to the slavery question in this Common- 
wealth. 

To those who will hereafter recognize this among the portraits 
which grace these walls, and who know the simple story of the life 
of the man it commemorates, it will have a significance of more 
than ordinary interest, representing as it does, a connecting link 
among the men who have contributed to the material interests 
of this Commonwealth, and who have given to the public service 
their best judgment in all measures pertaining to the nation's wel- 
fare, and their best influence in all that pertains to the supremacy 
of that policy which was regardful of the rights of man. 

But if there is one thought more valuable for remembrance than 
another in connection with Mr. Silsbee's life, it is the contempla- 
tion of the fact that he did not regard the pursuit of business enter- 
prises as inconsistent with a constant and watchful interest in the 
conduct of public affairs. The spirit which causes otherwise good 
citizens to withdraw from all interest in current politics is never to 
be commended. Every man has duties to the public as well as to 
himself, not necessarily as a public man, but as one who feels that 
there is a duty in moulding public opinion, to the extent of his in- 
fluence, in such directions as seem best calculated to promote the 
public good. This was a marked trait in the character of the men 
who were potent in the building up of our institutions, and of those 
who were contemporaneous with the one whom this portrait com- 
memorates. 

As a senator from the county of Essex and as a citizen of Salem, 
I welcome this acquisition to this chamber as being an appropriate 
representation of the men who have given renown to our commerce, 
character to our Commonwealth, and a good name to the com- 
munities in which they lived. 



14 THE SILSBEE PORTRAIT. [May, 



Remarks of Senator Grinnell of Franklin. 

Mr. President, — I have been requested to say something on 
the public life of the Hon. Nathaniel Silsbee, who, in the Congress 
of the United States for six years as a representative, and for nine 
years as a senator, was the exponent of the sentiments and the 
will of the Essex district and of the people of this Commonwealth ; 
and 1 attempt this with the greater readiness because of a more 
than ordinary friendship which existed between him and my own 
father, who in 1877, at the age of ninety-one years, died full of 
honors. 

He was two years in the Senate of Massachusetts when Mr. 
Silsbee presided over that bod}^ and afterwards was seven years a 
member of the lower House of Congress, during the time that Mr. 
Silsbee occupied a chair in the United States Senate ; and in my 
young da3'S I was not unfamiliar with the name and character 
of him whom we now honor. But the presentation of the portrait 
of that noble man, who, more than a half century ago, presided 
for three years over a body of which we are the successors, has 
been accompanied with such fitting words, and received with such 
a gracious tribute of language to his memory, that hardh' anything 
more may be added which cannot be called supererogatory. 

Mr. Silsbee's boyhood was passed in Salem, that grand old town, 
whose name is sweet to us, not only in its derivative meaning of 
"peace," but also from its long-time importance as the queen o^ 
our American commerce, its wealth, its cultivation and unstinted 
hospitality, despite some religious eccentricities concurrent with its 
earlier history. 

With a coast-born fondness for the ocean, he early tried his for- 
tune with "those that go down to the sea in ships, that do business 
in great waters ;" and at an age even earlier than that prescribed 
by our Constitution and our laws for the assumption of the rights 
and duties of citizenship and of manhood, he leaped into an en- 
viable notoriety and an opening fortune, by sailing a vessel of only 
one hundred and sixty tons, from Salem to the East Indies, and 
within twenty months returning with most successful results. 

This daring and profitable venture was at that time unequalled 
in the maritime history of our countr3^ ; and it was well said of 
him, as b}^ the Latin poet of the first navigator : — 



' Illi robur et aes triplex 
Circa pectus erat qui fragilem truci 
Commisit pelago ratem 
Primus.'' 



1882.] SENATE — No. 296. 15 

For some years he conducted a commercial and maritime busi- 
ness witli eminent success. In 1816, contrary to his own wishes, 
but at the solicitation of friends, he submitted to an election, as a 
representative to Congress from the Essex district, and later was 
twice chosen United States Senator. 

Perhaps no case has ever occurred in our Commonwealth where 
a man has found himself clothed with high honors, under circum- 
stances more repellent to all suspicion of personal application, or 
of pursuing any crooked paths in politics, or of having been act- 
uated by sinister views and purposes, than in the case of the 
eminent and good man whose memory we recall today. 

A great public dinner given him in 1820, at Salem, bj' citizens 
of both political parties, in those days of bitter antagonism, 
attests the feeling towards him at his home. While at Wash- 
ington, his opinion on all matteis connected with our commercial 
and maritime affairs was ever sought, and his advice heeded. 

Conservative but energetic, cautious but not timid, his large 
business experience and sound practical sense, made him authority 
on those subjects with which he had been familiar all his life ; but, 
while his chief interest was in these, he was by no means neglect- 
ful of the other great matters before the country. He manifested 
much sympath}' in caring for the Indians; he was cautious about 
selling the public lands ; he protested against the extension of 
slavery into the Territories ; he was decidedly opposed to the 
issuing of small bank bills, and placed himself squarely against a 
high protective tariff, as injurious to the maritime interest. 

With a majority of Northern politicians, he deprecated in the 
most earnest manner the removal of the deposits of the United 
States bank, as being, with the tariff, a prominent cause of the 
depression of business at that time. 

In presenting a memorial of twelve hundred citizens of Salem 
against the removal of the deposits of the United States bank, — 
as evincing the sentiments of the people, and also his own feeling 
of pride and respect for his home, — Mr. Silsbee said, " that this 
memorial has not been gotten up for the purpose of magnifying 
existing evils or increasing existing excitement ; such is not the 
character of these memorialists : they are devoted to their own 
business, and are not in the habit of making complaints of this 
kind without some strong cause. And that they believe such 
cause now to exist, is sufficiently indicated to me bj- seeing upon 
the memorial some names which, I think, would not otherwise 
have been placed there. 



16 THE SILSBEE POETRAIT. [May, 

" This memorial bears the signatures of men engaged, I believe, 
in all the learned professions, in Agriculture, Commerce, Manu- 
factures, the Mechanic Arts, and in most, if not all, branches of 
industr3^ Wherever they are known, it will, I think, be admitted, 
that, for sound practical information, and for untiring enterprise, 
the people of Salem are behind none of their fellow-countrymen. 
It was the people of that town who opened the w^ay to that exten- 
sive and valuable branch of trade which is now pursued froha this 
country to the East Indies, and in which they have largely par- 
ticipated from that time to the present moment. 

" The first American flag ever unfurled at the Cape of Good 
Hope was borne there upon* a Salem vessel. Men from Salem also 
owned the first American vessel that doubled Cape Horn ; and I 
doubt if there is a port of trade on the face of the globe which is 
known to civilized man that lias not been visited by the ships and 
the citizens of that ancient towu." 

Between the times of his holding a seat in the House of Repre- 
sentatives in Congress and his election to the United States Senate, 
Mr. Silsbee was three times chosen to the Senate of Massachusetts 
and thrice elected to the presidential chair of this body, o^er which 
he presided with acknowledged dignity and impartiality, and this 
it is which brings us together at this time to receive and acknowl- 
edge this beautiful work of art, "this counterfeit presentment" of 
a great and good man, who so long and faithfully upheld the dig- 
nity of this old Commonwealth in councils of her own, as well as in 
the larger, though to us not more important, sphere of the federal 
legislature. It is an eminently thoughtful and proper act of him 
who gives — and thoroughly appreciated by us who receive it, and 
place it here upon these walls, to be in* a perpetual companionship 
with the representations of those who would honor an}' association 
selected from the whole range of histor}', and who will receive in- 
creased respect and veneration from all who gaze upon this not un- 
worthy addition to their hallowed number. While modest worth, 
fidelity to every duty, punctuality to every engagement, purit}^ of 
private and public life shall be held in honor, the memory' of 
Nathaniel Silsbee will be cherished and venerated for a life without 
stain and without reproach. 



1882.] SENATE — No. 296. 17 



Kemarks of Senator Rockwell of Berkshire. 

Mr. President, — It is more than thirty 3'ears since Mr. Silsbee 
died. It is not to be expected that members of the Senate of this 
generation will be able to present personal recollections of him, but 
throughout the State he is still remembered b}' our elder citizens 
as one of the most able and respected official characters of the 
Commonwealth. 

In the county where I reside, one of the most distant from the 
good count}' of Essex, the traditions in relation to Mr. Silsbee, 
particularly in intelligent business circles, are of a highly interest- 
ing character. 

He was one of those citizens of Massachusetts who might fairly 
be said neither to seek nor decline office. He was called into 
office from pursuits that had rendered him entirely independent of 
office. Believing that his fellow citizens were sincere in demanding 
his public services, he rendered them cheerfully under a sense of 
dut}", and stimulated by a reasonable ambition. Surrounded in the 
county of Essex hj some of the most distinguished men of the 
Commonwealth, scholars, orators, distinguished lawyers and states- 
men, he was taken from among them to fill high offices during the 
best years of his life. Among those offices, for three years, was 
that of president of this body. Previously he had been a member 
of Congress for four years in the tr3'ing times of the commence- 
ment of the agitations respecting slaveiy, and gave tone to the 
sentiment of Massachusetts on that subject. After his presidency 
of the Senate he was made a senator of the United States, serving 
in that bodj' as the colleague of Daniel Webster and enjoying the 
confidence and respect of his great colleague as well as of the 
people of the Commonwealth. 

It is the character of the public men of cities, States and na- 
tions that makes the character of those communities. When refer- 
ence is made to Massachusetts men who have filled high public 
offices, it is found that they have not been taken exclusivel}' from 
any one of the professions or occupations. Even some of the 
most distinguished have been those who have not been trained by 
what is called a liberal education. The Commonwealth has had no 
narrow views upon this subject and has sought out and honored 
those who were qualified for high stations, either by early training 
or by persevering self-culture in mature life. , 

It is a happy thing that the portrait of one so identified with the 
great and solid character of Massachusetts should have been 



18 THE SILSBEE PORTRAIT. [May, '82. 

painted by an artist of whom Massachusetts is so proud, and who, 
I am glad to sa}', has reflected so much honor apon the western 
part of the State. Few specimens of art that will ever hang in this 
chamber will have more claims to interest than the original portrait 
of Nathaniel Silsbee by Chester Harding. 

The President. — The question is upon the adoption of the res- 
olutions which have been presented bj- the senator from Essex, Mr. 
Stone, and which have been read by him. Senators in favor of the 
adoption of the resolutions will rise. — It is a unanimous vote : the 
resolutions are adopted. The proceedings of the occasion will be 
entered at large upon the record, and have been ordered by the 
Senate to be printed. 



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